I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 24: Calm before the Storm
It was kind of a lonely feeling going to bed alone again, but it didn't last. Out of habit I searched out for Fasha's ki the instant I woke up, not finding it of course. I sighed, remembering all the events of yesterday in a quick flash. Now that I was a kid again I wasn't supposed to be having these feelings, but they weren't very strong. Vegeta explained that separation would be a little difficult to handle, but not horribly bad since we never completed the bond. Glancing at the time of eight in the morning, I decided to get up and try to get it off my mind. The smell of food did the trick, and I dressed quickly to run down for breakfast. When I reached the kitchen, the smell of food got really good, and then I saw why. Chichi and Videl stood over the stove with no robots around.
"Well good morning sleepyhead, you're the first one. Have a seat and I'll get you some food for that stomach of yours!" Chichi said with a bright smile. Wow she's in a good mood today.
"Where are Gohan and the boys?" I asked.
"I think the boys are still sleeping, Gohan is helping Bulma in her lab," Videl said, bringing over a stack of fresh pancakes. That was all the incentive I needed, and started chowing down.
"Same old Verto," she sighed and went back for a plate of bacon and eggs. Afterward I ate enough for an army, I sat in contentment, listening to Chichi and Videl talk about random things before adding myself to the discussion.
"I know the invasion is in a few days, but aren't you still in school Videl?" I asked.
"No silly, its summer break right now, and I may not be going back right away," she patted her stomach and smiled.
"Well you will be going back young lady once he is born!" Chichi scowled slightly.
"He?"
"Yes, of course it will be a boy, first grandchildren always are!" Chichi claimed.
"Excuse me, but I know this is a girl. Girl's are naturally stronger than boys anyway!" Videl fired back. I sighed, this argument was bound to go on for some time, so I simply got up and left the room.
"I'm going out for awhile, but I won't be far. Just into the city!" I called back. I needn't bother; the two women were still in a heated argument to even notice. I walked outside and onto the street, hands in my pockets. The city was nice in the morning; the cool and brisk air that came from the onshore flow of the ocean nearby had something to do with that. I wondered across a few streets and into a park that I had frequented with Goten and Trunks whenever Vegeta let us have a day off of training, which was hardly ever. There were a lot of kids out there today, most of them playing on the playground equipment. I picked out a spot under a tree, watching them with a slight smile across my face. I could always ask the dragon to make my mind that of a child again, but I don't think that will fly with anyone, including me. Kids have it easy, no cares about tomorrow, no dangers to worry about, no need to fear an invading race since they don't understand it anyway. A young adult came striding up to me. She was rather short for an adult, maybe Videl's height at best, but then even that was big again now. Her hair was red and long, her eyes green. Her face held a bright smile of an angel.
"Hi there. Aren't you that kid, Verto Briefs, the one who fought against Majin Buu?" So much for blending in.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Can I have your autograph then, my daughter really wants it!"
I smiled slightly at the minor publicity, "Yeah sure." She handed me a pad of paper and a pen and I signed.
"What's your name anyway?"
"Sarah," she said quickly.
"Sarah..." I dragged it out to get the point across.
"Oh, uh, C-Cardigan," she stuttered. Must be a ditz, where's Bunny Briefs when you find her a friend.
"Sarah Cardigan, kind of a funny name, but Verto Briefs isn't much of a picnic either, here you go," I said, handing her back her pad. She didn't leave right away like most of them do, but rather she watched the playing children first.
"How old are you anyway Verto?" Tough question, I don't think I even know now.
"Eight, almost nine," I said quickly, close enough anyway.
"Funny, I thought you'd be a bit older and just suffering from short syndrome. No offense," she giggled to my scowl. I didn't say anything, just kept watching the children playing; a particular group was playing tag nearby.
"Children are the perfect humans don't you think? No cares, no worries, all they need to do is play and learn. So pure," she said quietly. I nodded, before realizing what she had actually said, and I scanned her energy. Her ki was a bit high for an average human, but it wasn't anything to write home about. However, her energy signal did feel a bit strange. I swear I heard her refer to them as humans.
"You sure are young to be fighting though. Other than a few others, I've never seen anyone that young get into the kind of battles that you do. Most adults would avoid that fight you had with Buu!" she exclaimed.
"That's what happens when it's drilled into your head at a young age," I said. There is something really familiar about this girl.
"Well, I better be going. Good luck in the future, young Verto!" With that said she simply left the area, no daughter or son to speak of. I decided to follow her, but her ki vanished once she turned a corner, and I lost her. I know I've seen her somewhere before.
I walked back to Capsule corp. trying to remember that name, Sarah Cardigan. Sarah felt pretty sincere, but when I asked her last name she stuttered a bit, like it wasn't Cardigan, maybe it was something else after all. What else ends with "igan" in last names that I know of. Not many for sure, what if I were to change the C to a K and the A to an E. Kerdigan, that sounds weird. WAIT A SEC, CARDIGAN IS KERRIGAN. I knew I had seen that face before on the Starcraft game. That's why her ki was high! I stopped in mid thought, rescanning the city for any scattered signals, finding none.
But we destroyed her base, well not all of it, but most of the main structure sure didn't make it. There's always a chance she got out or dug underground though, Damnit! I kicked a rock in front of me in anger, only to see it Zoom across the sidewalk and take out a parking meter, which fell over and broke on the sidewalk. But why did she come here anyway, and in human form? I thought once Zerg always Zerg, maybe I was incorrect in that field, or maybe she was simply in disguise and checking out the scenery before the invasion. Whatever the case, I'm not letting her out of my sight again! I grunted harshly and walked back to Capsule corp.
-
I walked into Mom's lab and saw tons of pistols, shotguns and machine guns lying around. She and Gohan were working on them, attaching new parts and taking off old ones.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Just remodeling these into my special weapons, I figure you can't have enough right?" Mom asked with a smile. I think this is going to her head now.
"Hey Gohan, can I have a word?" I asked, pointing towards the door.
"Yeah sure, I'll be right back Bulma!" He followed me out into the hall and down about twenty feet.
"What is it?"
"I think I just had a run in with Kerrigan. I'm going to check to be sure, but I'm pretty sure it was her, in human form not Zerg," I sighed.
His eyes narrowed, "Does this mean we could be getting infiltrated before the invasion?"
"Could be, but that's not the Zerg style of fighting, or at least the one I'm familiar with. They prefer to swarm up and come through the front door, strike teams are rare, and that's all Kerrigan's group was anyway. There were a lot more Zerg on Kanassa in the past," I explained.
"Well she was different then any other Zerg we've encountered," he said thoughtfully.
"No kidding, I'm gonna check on my old game to see if that was her," I said, heading back to the lab. Gohan went back to work on weapons detail, and I headed for the computer.
"Hey Mom, you got my old game on here, right? I need to check something!"
"Sure hun, its down there on the left, just click once," she pointed out quickly. I entered the game mode, looking for the right scenario to play. When I got to the right screen, a female face showed up in the tiny Vid screen at the bottom. Her face was similar, her hair red and eyes green, definitely Kerrigan. I exited the game and gave Gohan a slow nod, before standing up.
"Hey Mom, do you have a long-range scanner for the Zerg on the ground? Other than your scouters I mean?"
"No, not yet, me and Gohan were gonna fly out later and start placing sensors around the planet so we can detect where they are, why?"
"Just curious, want some help with those?"
-
"Okay, Verto to Gohan, I'm on my last two," I spoke into the scouter.
"Ten-Four, I've got one left, heading for the Eastern Continent!"
"Gotcha, I'll hit the Southern part of that and meet you back at home! Over and out!" I shut off the scouter and continued flying towards my destination. I hadn't been to the Eastern continent very much, just once or twice since it was further east than the Son house. But one plus I had seen while up here, no Zerg and no Zerg signals at all on the scouter. So either they were hiding it, buried underground, or were simply not here yet. I was hoping for the latter, but I knew better, especially if their top assassin was running around without a leash. I approached the southern part of the east continent and the scouter beeped once.
"Right where you are kid!" Mom's voice came over. She stayed behind and monitored us on her scanners, so we knew where to drop the sensor packs. Once they hit the ground they were supposed to dig in and stay covered, rather Zerg were there or not. I dropped the pack and headed north and east a little more since I was on the southern peninsula.
"Fly north for about fifty miles, that will do for the last signal!" Mom ordered. I picked up the pace a little more than I had, wanting to get this done. I only flew for a few minutes before she paged me again, I had flown right over the target ground because I wasn't paying attention.
"Sorry, anxiety," I explained quickly.
"Oh, shut up! I haven't gotten any sleep for the past two days! I'll tell you about anxiety!" I rolled my eyes slightly; dropping the last pack and watching it land and dig into the ground.
"Last one is placed Mom, coming back to base!" I said, flying off quickly, I didn't want to leave Capsule Corp unguarded for long. Gohan had to fly a little further east than I did, but caught up a few minutes later and we flew in silence, grim faces displayed.
"I just hope these work," he said; silver aura flaring beside my own.
"Well, if they do, then we shouldn't have a problem detecting where the Zerg are. And we should get a good video feedback to see what they're up to, hopefully," I replied as we approached home.
-
"Well, that should help a little bit as least," Mom said, as she messed with the holographic projector that was still set up in the lobby. It was decided that we should keep it in there for the battle, for a reference of what all was going on. Mom's scanners were pretty powerful, and could pick up a few Super Saiyans fighting from two hundred miles away from the sensor. It also managed to send back a clear video stream without overloading, something Goten and Trunks tested out for her a bit later.
"What's the long range one say Mom, are they still getting closer?" I asked. She punched in some buttons and the other screen came up, showing a massive purple blob slowly moving towards Earth, they had just entered the asteroid belt.
"Dead on schedule, you two hungry?" As if she had to ask, our stomach's growled.
"Okay, I think I can manage a meal," she groaned as she got up, fatigue was getting obvious.
"No mom, we can eat that instant stuff, or the robots can do it, you're tired and you should rest," I said, pointing at the couch.
"This is nothing, pretty soon you two will be the ones tired and trying to do everything. I'll have to drag your ass to bed then!" She chuckled a bit, staggering a bit as she tried to walk past.
"Mom, if you don't rest now, then you won't be able to drag our asses to bed, rest okay?" I urged again.
"Yeah Bulma, you've worked really hard over the past few days. You do need the rest, what would Vegeta think of this?" Gohan asked.
She sighed, "Get outta here before I change my mind!"
-
After a quick lunch, one that really didn't taste that good, instant robot lunch never did, Gohan and I sparred lightly in the gravity chamber.
"Your face feeling any better?" he asked, throwing a punch.
I blocked it and returned with a kick, "How'd you know?"
"The way it was twitching earlier, and Vegeta has a habit of breaking mine every time we spar together," he grinned and fired a small ki blast, one that I dodged easily.
"Well at least it doesn't hurt today, should be good tomorrow," I said, firing my own batch of ki blasts. A knock came from the metal door, which was odd since everyone knew to use the pager on the side of the door. Gohan walked over to open it, and I turned the gravity back down to normal.
"Supreme Kai?" Gohan asked as I turned around. Indeed it was the Kai himself, or at least the new version of him as Kibito Kai.
"Greeting boys, I presume you two are preparing for the Zerg arrival?"
"Kind of, were just passing the time now, most of the preparations are done. Dad and Vegeta took all the other Saiyans up to the time chamber to train, a few others went too, what brings you here?"
"I came to tell you that the Zerg can home in on our energy, more specifically yours and Verto's. It seems you two both emit a special kind of energy called...."
"Psi?" we both asked, startling the Kai.
"So you have heard of it, I wasn't sure. Well I can give you a little bit on insight on it, but not much," Kibito said, stepping inside and taking a seat on the floor.
"Technically ki and Psi are completely different, where ki is limited to the person, Psi is supposedly unlimited when controlled to its full capacity. I'm not so certain about that and neither is my elder. Also both ki and Psi make up the total energy of your soul by percentage, a normal Saiyan for example only has about ten percent Psi or so, but the other ninety percent is all ki. As my elder told me, one needs about thirty-five to forty percent to even notice Psi. However it is more difficult to harness than ki ever was, I myself have tried to find it within myself for the last thousand years, never finding it. We are still researching the details of this type of energy and we're not very far with it. We would probably know more if not for the fact that Majin Buu had killed all of the other Kais," Kibito looked down slightly before back up.
"But it seems that you two can use this energy, or can you?"
We both gave him a blank stare before I spoke up, "Well according to my sources, we have been emitting it, but neither one of us can feel or sense it, at least that I know of. Isn't having a lower amount of ki a bad thing in this case?" I asked.
"Not necessarily, while your potential ki is probably going to be lower, your potential Psi may be higher. I think they can be combined if one knew how to use them both, but again I'm not the foremost expert on that subject. The only ones who can truly master something like that probably have close to an even split with their energies. As for the Zerg, it's extremely difficult to even detect them, what do you sense when you find Zerg?"
"A scattered ki feeling, like they barely have any, or the ki they have isn't holding together," I replied.
"That is about right, they don't have ki to speak of. They also do not have psi, because they do not have souls either. Only a few Zerg have either, and that list hasn't even cracked a dozen yet. One is the Overmind, the controller of the Zerg. Another is its most trusted servant; her name is Kerrigan, who is supposedly Dabura's daughter. Have you met her?" he asked when we perked up to her name.
"Yeah she's here on Earth already," Gohan said, a bit loud.
"While the Overmind exists, Kerrigan is completely under its control, though she does not like it one bit. She does things her own way, but knows that she cannot openly defy her master. And don't you two start thinking you can just bring her back either, it doesn't work that way. As for the Overmind…" Kibito sighed, "There is plenty to tell, and I doubt even I have half of those answers."
"We got some time, go right ahead," I said, sitting down in front of him, Gohan did the same.
"Since the Zerg are not quite from this universe, though it would seem just like they were, I don't have that much information on them. Somewhere on the far side of the East Galaxy, there is a wormhole of some kind that allows passage from their dimension and ours. I do not know how it got there, but I know it can't be closed either. Babidi used this rip in space to travel to that universe and reality. There he encountered the Zerg and Dabura for the first time. When I explained how Dabura was from the demon world, well it existed in that place, as well as another Earth and more humans. These humans are more advanced in the technology, and while there were no ki fighters there and no Saiyans, their weapons proved effective against just about anything they came across, as long as they weren't overwhelmed that is. Somewhere, sometime, the Zerg started showing up there, and slowly made their way here. They were came for Babidi after, how do you guys say it?"
"Pissed them off?" I asked carefully.
"Yeah that's right. Babidi knew he was outgunned, even with Dabura there at his side he didn't have a chance because of they're great numbers. But he knew that if he revived Buu, no force would stand against him, Zerg or no Zerg. Obviously he was mistaken about that, and the Overmind's will to find the wizard eventually faded once Babidi died and Buu was released. But then something caught its interest, it was you Gohan, your Psionic emitions got its attention. My elder and I didn't know this would happen, otherwise we would have thought twice about unlocking your potential. The Overmind lives on a type of Psi energy I believe, but I'm not sure since we have never encountered it before. It may have to feed on that type of energy as well, meaning its power may not be unlimited like many believe. Therefore it may have to live by having its Zerg consume for it, or perhaps that powers their hive clusters. By killing off entire races and worlds and taking in the dead before their souls leave the bodies for good, which does take a little time, they could likely keep on going, but that is all speculation of course. Your soul Verto, took about five seconds to leave the physical plane once you died. Obviously you had no idea the passage of time, but that is considered abnormally short for any soul. Only the strongest souls can come to other world in a time of less than half a day, like you and most of your friends. But the fact that yours only took five seconds made you stand out, which is why I had you brought to my world later on. After my elder was released, I discussed this fact in private thought with the topic of where you came from and all while he was powering up Gohan, and it was decided that we would eventually do that to you as well. Both of you have a greater power hidden deep in your souls, and it's this power the Overmind wants. It appears to be luring them here. No doubt it targeted you first Verto because of the power readings and the lack of experience for battle, no offense."
"None taken, continue."
"Now the Overmind has more than just us for enemies, most of which are all in the other dimension that is attached to this one. However, I do not know of them all, nor do I know if they could be trusted, so it wasn't worth the risk. But there is one enemy in particular that really drove the Overmind up the wall. They are called the Protoss," Kibito said, catching the way my eye lit up.
"You know of them do you?" I nodded in amazement, Wow this really is like the game, who would've thought the SC and DBZ dimensions were that close together.
"They are a race that knows no ki, but are masters of natural and artificial forms of Psi, and are probably the only race that can contend with the Zerg fully. I have my suspicions the Overmind chased down Babidi and then you two to try to gain the advantage over the Protoss, still up in the air about that one," Kibito shrugged, "Any questions?"
"Just one, do you know how we might be able to draw out this Psi energy?" Gohan asked.
"That I don't Gohan, but I have a feeling deep down that you two will figure it out eventually. The one thing that has worked for both of you has been extreme rage from the pain of loss and such. While your mystic power doesn't require that anymore, that particular situation also hasn't happened yet. Search deep in your time of need, and you might find the answer," Kibito said, getting to his feet.
"One last question, what are the Zerg exactly? Every life form has to have a soul, or a ki, even small animals do?" Gohan asked. It was a good question, I had been wondering myself.
Kibito looked unsure, "Perhaps the Zerg are the slow evolution of deceased races that the Overmind has conquered and twisted into what we know now. Only time will tell, I really do not have any idea. This is not a creature we can read thoughts from easily. Anyway, it's time for me to go now. I cannot be involved during the battle with the Zerg, but rest assured we will be rooting you on from up there, farewell!" he held up a thumbs up and vanished promptly.
"Are you as confused as I am?" Gohan asked, staring at the spot Kibito had been standing in.
"Yeah just about," I smirked and got up as well, heading for the door, and the next meal.